Chromatic

My opinion of @elonmusk I like his cars (I own a 2015 S, and 2023 S), his rockets, his solar energy systems, and his satellite communication system. I also like his positions on open source and patents. But I very much disagree with him on a number of issues. I disagree with how he treats his scientists. Technology/product development may not need openness and publications to advance, but forward-looking *research* sure does, whether it's in AI, neural interfaces, material science, or whatever. Secrecy hampers progress and discourages talents from joining the effort. I also disagree with the hype. I mean, expressing an ambitious vision for the future is great. But telling the public blatantly false prediction ("AGI next year", "1 million robotaxis by 2020", "AGI will kill us all, let'spause",...) is very counterproductive (also illegal in some cases). More importantly, I think his public positions on many political issues, journalism, the media and the press, and academia, are not just wrong but dangerous for democracy, civilization, and human wellfare. Say what you want about "traditional media" but you can't really have reliable information without professional journalists working for a free and diverse press. Democracy can't exist without it, which is why only authoritarian ennemies of democracy rail against the media. Finally he doesn't seem to hesitate to disseminate batshit-crazy conspiracy theories as long as they serve his interests (e.g. boosting "PizzaGate", "illegal immigrants corrupt elections in the US", "person X is a pedo",...). One would expect a technological visionary to be a rationalist. Rationalism doesn't work without Truth. This has become particularly concerning since he bought himself a platform to disseminate his dangerous political opinions, conspiracy theories, and hype. He has been quite naïve about the difficulties of running a social network and the (legal) necessity of doing content moderation. One can claim to be a 1st Amendment absolutist, but a lot of content *must* be taken down by law, e.g. terrorist propaganda, child exploitation, blatant hate speech (in the EU and other regions). Then, there is dangerous disinformation that puts public health in danger or corrupts the democratic process. You have to moderate that too. Content moderation is a complicated problem whose best answer is not an attitude of total laissez-faire but a complex trade-off.